Review

Archana Kapoor, Women without Borders India representative and director of the film supports us managing our projects in south India. She is filmmaker and editor of Hardnews, a political magazine in New Delhi.

International Women´s Day 2006

"Different Strokes"

07. March 2006Haus des Sports Vienna

To celebrate International Women´s Day 2006 we presented the first Women without Borders film „Different Strokes“ on March 7th in cooperation with the Sports Division of the Austrian Federal Chancellery. Nasra Hassan, director of the United Nations information service read out the official 8th of March message from Kofi Annan.

"Different Strokes" is a film made by Archana Kapoor, Women without Borders India.

13 months after the Tsunami, Women without Borders started a unique project in south India: Swimming training for girls and women. Never again should women die if they have a chance to reach the shore.

„After the Tsunami our lives changed totally. We still suffer from the effects of this catastrophe; many people are traumatized and fear the water. Projects like this give us confidence and help us to deal with the water again. A lot of people died in the Tsunami, we all have the fear that something like that wil happen again. People have to know how to swim, especially mothers to be able to rescue their children.“ (Selvi, 25, participant)

The film „Different Strokes,“ that documents the effort of Women Without Borders to teach women along the southern Indian coast to swim, is also a document that shows the courage of women to reach new shores, to override borders and to take their life into their own hands.

Women change the world because they are moving. Sports is an important contribution to freedom and change.